This is not specifically related to hardcore but an idea that came to me that would be cool to see in game is faster gem leveling. For example the percentage should scale above 100% so that you might get more than one level. That way if you complete a rift level 60 and pick a level 1 gem you might get 2 or 3 levels instead of just 1

Love D2 HC! Only 20-30% of my deaths were due to lag and other technical issues (lost connectivity, pc error, etc.).

Still staying alive in D2 was much more rewarding exatcly because all of this. This is how hardcore should be.

A lot of people will understand what I mean. Quitting hardcore after dying only means that you do not like the hardcore mode. Dying in hardcore is key part of the challenge. Now this death ratio has been greatly reduced which brings more people to hardcore only to disappoint them after hundreds of hours playing.

I remember attempting Duriel on my old PC. It had like 1 minute loading time! On single player it was fine, but in battle net the game was going in the back while my PC was loading it, so I was kind of seeing screens of my dead body while waiting to load

I know there's (generally) two ways to play in most of the "no end"(where you can play hundreds of days) games such as Diablo 3, World of Warcraft and mmos in general:

'Standard' - serious, semi-serious (usually called causal). This is where most players fit in, it's the gameplay where you run levels up to max relatively fast and then start gathering gear and experimenting with builds based on it. This includes farming, fast runs, ladder competition, i.e. getting maximum gear/xp value for the time spent.

Story/Content Driven. This is much smaller group. Usually it's experienced in the beginning by everyone who starts the game for firs time. It's when you read through quests, listen conversations, explore the maps, look at the graphics, the way your glowing sword swings in the dark, watching movies, enjoying the soundtrack, enjoying every skill and class, etc. In general - enjoying the full game, rather than the gear/xp progression alone.

For Diablo 3 the second category is somewhat limiting as the game is pretty short (in comparison to other games, such as mmos which have much more content).

I enjoy the Story/Content driver game playing much more (mainly because I have limited time), however at points I'm kind of pushed to the first category of gaming.

I was wondering if you can share your experience with your game play types?

What is hooking you up to play Diablo?

Is your gameplay fitting in any of these categories?

I love the game and I don't want it to be repetitive and "speed running".

Well since some time passed since Diablo 3 release... we all know what happened. Let's hear the community voice.

My vote definitely goes to original Diablo 2 - The expansion introduced nothing more than 800x600 resolution, same applies for Diablo 3 at some degree (no more ladder, easy level up, boring "end game", easy hardcore, boring skill system and many more flaws).

If it only could have considered dodge as % based - in long term(the way you feel you character) 30% dodge is 30% dodge, which is 30% less damage. Yes, if you have 1hp and 99% dodge their damage doesn't get reduced by 99%, but it feels like they do no damage to you, doesn't it.

Losing a HC character because of disconnection is something that really gives you..
Nothing, not a single good gaming emotion.

It's the same feeling you got at least once, overwriting a 200+ hours savegame on console when you was a kid. It's pure shame, nothing gained.. Nothing learnt.. Because it's not your fault this time. You can't imagine how FRUSTRATING it is until it really happens to you personally.

..HC's existence is insulted by this happening. I am sad as a gamer.. Frustration will soon become sadness, I know this by experience.

Actually it gives me all the thrill I play for! Lost numerous characters because of lag - play softcore!

D2 :
-Linear talent tree, you end up with 2 - 3 skills.
-Characteristics kind of useless, it's only used to gain more mana, health and be able to wear the best stuff.

D3 :
-A freaking LOT of different skills, with each different runes that can change the whole skill, you have to make a lot of choices, and still be able to use 6 different skills at a time, plus 3 passive skills, and you can still change it whenever you want, try another combination, try every skill to know exactly which is the best for you.
-Characteristics useful, you have to seek for more strenght, dexterity or willpower to be able to deal more damage, gain more evasion and elemental resistances, etc.

D3 is just way better than D2. You can't argue with that.

Easier to understand, but still way more complexe and complete.
For the barbarian by exemple, instead of waiting for lvl 30 to be able to pick Whirlwind ( Like EVERY other barbarian in the world ) and wait 30 more lvl to have it maxed out and have enough mana to be able to spam it., you will be able to pick a lot of different skills from the beginning, at lvl 13 only, you already have a lot of choices between 6 - 7 skills and their runes, all of those having their own particular utility.

Plus, I find the "Battle system" way better this way, it's smoother, you really hit the ennemies, in D2 you were just swinging like it wasn't of any effectiveness.

Hello,

The thing is that the current Diablo 3 skill balance is very bad(similar to Diablo 2), e.g. you have 5-10 skills certainly the few you use are way better than the others you picked (not what Blizzard said though). So we end up in the same situation as Diablo 2, however in D2 you had much more skills and synergies.

Solving the skill balance problem would make Diablo 3 much more customizable.

I've been drinkin` lately as I'm now... I just wanted to pour in some of my thoughts...

I f*ed up and order on a game retail site for Guild Wars 2 - so I don't have beta access now - I'm kind of broken now... feeling bad.

Anyway this is for Diablo - I expected to have Diablo 3 Collectors edition pre-order by.... three weeks in the past?! Guess what! Nothing happened and I'm gonna get normal edition (crap!).

*Filling up my glass with rakia (strong alcoholic beverage)*

Uhh... where was I? Oh yeah, so I guess this thread is so meaningless that it will end up into trash or moved into "some other more appropriate place" by the admins. Well - It doesn't matter as long as I have shared the things I want to shared... or at least tried to.

Witch Doctor - nice fella. I like him(still hate they put genders in the game), reminds me of the Necromancer (the real one - not the crappy version in Baldur's gate).
Still I think they should have named it - Necromancer, instead of "Witch Doctor" - I mean ... wtf is this Warcraft? Should we have shaman and warlock also?

Looks fancy... and "warcrafty" as the whole scenery in Diablo - the game is going sooo much warcraft/starcraft style that I cannot bare it anymore. Not to mention the childish, colorful, funny graphics... eeek! Take Path of Exile instead - that's the spiritual heir of Diablo 1 and 2. Well but... what we can do, Blizzard North are not coming back, Interplay are not coming back, many good companies died, but that's how the world it is.

Don't get me wrong Diablo 3 is still going to be awesome game, however nothing like the old versions. Pretty much what happened with Fallout series - Fallout 3 is awesome 3D shooter with RPG elements and voice acting. However the only similarity with the old Fallout series is the "post apocalyptic" environment, which could have easily been medieval one (as they just renamed the bows to guns and swords to energy fists.

Oh yeah I started with the Witch Doctor - I'd love to have a mod which turns him into real necromancer, with armor and stuff and summons. I could spam Bone Spirit instead of fire bombs and summon real skeletons instead of "dogs". Not to mention the curses.

Before I fall down sleeping on my keyboard - one last thing: Deckard Cain... ?!!? He's not supposed to be "crazy", "funny" fella to play around and have fun with!!! This is Deckard Cain for Christ sake! He's the living library, he had lived through dark times, he's serious, he's an example of great person!

Starting to have hard time typing here... Will continue tomorrow if I have a chance.

Disappointed. Yet again. Everything Blizzard does from Cataclysm to here - it's all pathetic and against the real gamers. Just to clear it - "playing" 18 hours a day doesn't make you a gamer.

So this game will become mini WoW? If I don't spend my whole time playing like mad I will never reach the area where the good gear drops, just like WoW.
... and I assume at some point you will release "content patches".

I also get the feeling that there's a lot of people that found refuge in HC just because they thought there was no RMAH.

It makes perfect sense and I'm one of those. I seriously think of abandoning the game if RMAH comes to Hardcore.
I also felt let down that I need to play softcore in order to unlock hardcore mode.... I really don't want to go near those people using the RMAH... it's disgusting.

Or at least please make "no RMAH mode". You'd say "but the black market..." NO! People stay away from the Black Market, it's unsafe, it's expensive, it's just not worthy. Yes, there are people who buy the life they don't deserve - but this is life and in most of the cases is not legal.
Imagine the scenario someone wants to do an assassination - it's illegal, it's unsafe, it's expensive. Too few people do it.
Now imagine assassinations are legal and the government even provides you with terminal to issue kills - all safe and cheap. A lot of people will do it for one reason or another.

That is what Blizzard aimed There should always be couple of dark horses, which usually appeal to other to more unruly people. I'm sure that things will even in the game (remember Necromancer in big part of the patches).

So besides not being announced, what is your greatest fear with Diablo3?

For me my greatest fear is that Blizz makes the graphics too cartoony. For some reasons this has become Blizz's style since WC3. Damn, just compare WC1 and WC2 with WC3 you'll see what I mean.

I remember when they announced SC2 last year I almost couldn't believe it was Starcraft. Well since then they made huge progress and it looks way better now and I hope it will look even better when it's release.

There's no question here, Diablo3 graphics needs to be as dirty and gritty as it is aesthetically possible. Still today when I play D2 or D1, just looking at the graphics gives me the creeps, and I deeply hope that D3 will look like its predecessors in this way, even if it's in 3D.

I fully support you. Diablo 3 looks more like Warcraft universe. I've complained numerous times that they should make it more gloomy and reuce coulours.

So adlast i been choosen along lucky ones to go and fight with evil.I been waiting for long time ,just over 10years. and a big disapiotment!!!!! Skills system WTF? are you serious what is that . Looks like been created for 7 year old. and Runes? where are those awsome features that i been shown couple months before . Where are the world drops runes? New runes looks like been created and designed by a guy that had 5 minutes to do it?Are you seriously rushing so much to get game shipped that you really dont care about mechanics ?Comunity wake up lets do something about it !!! THAT IS NOT A D3 SKILLS SYSTEM that is a joke.I cant belive that hapend. And now one of the blizzard representatives will say thats ok . that was a plan and theres always must be someone that is unhappy .Thats bullshit i dont belive om the only one that hates cartoon like skill system.

Please dont rush it with realease if game will look lile that.

This is discrase.

Unfortunately some of us have been ramming this from the beginning, but Blizzard are really after broader audience - which often means that hardcore gamers will remain unsatisfied. It's business, simple enough.

I'm kind of disappointed, I don't know is it the luck to blame, is it Blizzard, is the communities I participate in I really feel down about beta going for so long time and I didn't have chance to participate .... even though I'm active fan, participating in tens of contents, contributing to communities, playing all of their (Blizzard) games.

I really don't know what else to do... what people do to actually "deserve" such key...

Witch Doctor Build
Frogs, chicken, zombies and fetish creatures - all running around like mad horrified into flames! If I had only once sentence to describe the build

I love chaos, craziness and fire! I picked all kinds of creatures which come on stacks, plus having hexed the enemies.

Common Fight Scenario
Witch doctor runs in the middle of the large pack of enemies supported by Jungle Fortitude and Hex Rune. When doctor is sitting nice and tight surrounded by enemies the firework show starts: Hex! > Horrify! > Fetish Army! > Zombie Charger! > Plague Toads and Firebombs! ... the result everything running around pointless dying one by one, while the witch doctor stays in the middle laughing and throwing fire and frogs!

Blizzard were never good in Collector's Editions - fact. As with their other games the CE is a little bit upgraded normal edition of the game.
If the game RRP is 60 euro, I would expect the so called "collectors edition" to be 80-90 euro.

P.S. I really hope they make a collector's edition for a game some time near. I will not hesitate to pay the full price deserved, even it is hundreds of euros.

Ah this reminds me of the old days. My and my friends were playing in a game club, since we didn't have the original game or internet. There were only 4 computers with Diablo 2 on them and we were crazy grinding Chaos Sanctuary in games called "ama pala bang"(1 paladin and 4-5 amazons).
The uniques at that time were pretty retarded(pre LoD), so the best stuff found was yellow Cho-ko-nu. I remember find one near perfect (can't remember percents) with mana and life steal, it was awesome - my multishot was melting through the mobs

There are basically two mods that are staying strong over the years:
- Median - the download link is at the bottom left.
This mod changes the whole game. It is still being supported and updated.
- Eastern Sun - There is whole thread about this one here on the forum.

Making loot individual creates some really weird moments in the game as far as im concerned:

think about you and a bunch of friends walking the world killing monsters...
with this messed up mechanism you'll probably see the other players walking from one place to another with no apparent reason (while in truth the actually collecting dropped loot only they can see).

that's kinda stupid, don't you think?!?!?!
i rather the loot is universal.

Have you played WoW? If you do - you must have seen people running to corpses that you cannot interact with to get their "12 silver coins". It will be the same with Diablo 3 - yes, I know corpses disappear faster, but you will kind still remember where the battle was hot and assume he's going to get his loot.

Disappointed. Yet again. Everything Blizzard does from Cataclysm to here - it's all pathetic and against the real gamers. Just to clear it - "playing" 18 hours a day doesn't make you a gamer.

So this game will become mini WoW? If I don't spend my whole time playing like mad I will never reach the area where the good gear drops, just like WoW.
... and I assume at some point you will release "content patches".

I'm kind of disappointed, I don't know is it the luck to blame, is it Blizzard, is the communities I participate in I really feel down about beta going for so long time and I didn't have chance to participate .... even though I'm active fan, participating in tens of contents, contributing to communities, playing all of their (Blizzard) games.

I really don't know what else to do... what people do to actually "deserve" such key...

I'm still an advocate of the 2011 release date. It will release this year if no major problems with the game are found. Blizzard isn't one to make major mistakes as of late. I still expect it as late as possible, with a December release being the most probable and a November release being more ideal (and more unlikely).

I highly anticipate the beta to officially begin in August. Even as early as August 1st-2nd when the NDA for the press release is lifted.

If beta begins August and you expect December release - it will be around 4 months beta testing. As we know Blizzard delivers very high quality for betas. More extensive period of testing 3+ months is needed only for competitive games such as Starcraft and Warcraft. Diablo would not need that deep level of balancing - they will be focused more on Battle.net and in-game bugs.
As we know, Battle.net was tested indepth (an still is being tested/fixed) with Starcraft beta and release.
Additionally Blizzard performs average 3 months beta tests (could be less).

Having the facts above I would expect 2.5 months beta test, 2 weeks stress test (as they did with Diablo 2) and 2 weeks gap between beta end and release date.

If beta starts on August 1st I would expect the game to be on the shelves mid November.

The domain transfer synergizes with a rumor I found over on diabloii.net:

1. A new game will be announed at the Worldwide Invitational in Paris.
2. It won't be related to Starcraft or WoW.
3. The next gen MMO they're developing is several years away.
4. The game they're announcing won't be an MMO.

My conclusion: since D3 has already been in development for so many years and since Blizzard will have the diablo3.com domain just in time for the Worldwide Invitational, this is imo the game they'll most likely be announcing. This would also mean D3 won't be an MMO.

Look out for June the 28th!

Diablo 3 is already been in development for so many years?!?!?! How is that???

Then you qualified the statement and said only half the gaming sites would link to diablo3.com in 14days... Not a single mention in kotaku.com, joystiq.com, ign, 1up etc

You sir, mislead people. Very unprofessional behavior. Classic example of amateur internet losers running a mickey mouse operation saying whatever they want because there is no repercussions.

You manufactured peoples expectations with hyperbole, napkins, drooling, ZOMG etc pffffft I can't beleive i stayed up all night for this crap

I totally agree. You can not make such advertisment on our backs! "Something really big"?!?! WTF! Blizzards is taking over sites all the time... they got diablo7.com SO WHAT??

I'm totally pissed!

Quote from "Aussensaiter" »

I got one statement for you.

GTFO.

MedievalDragon said, nobody should be hyped to much about the Countdown, Diablo Fanz will mostly be blazed, but not all. And that you shouldn't except to much. Stop this shit, and stop Flaming.

When you were excepting to much, ITS YOUR FAULT, not Medievaldragons. And if you wanna flame, just gtfo and go onto the street and flame some real life guys, but i guess that you would shit your pants. Flaming is always easy, but has anyone of you done better?

MD put much work into at, also Umaro, wtf are you thinking that they feel like, when they read shit like your posts? If something is wrong for you, and you don't like things as they went, GTFO. But don't make fun of people's hard work, and stop whining!

You have no idea what it takes, to put such things through, and what it means to real fans, so i get you waste your time here. So senseless what you are talking..

Nobody disapointed you, except you yourself, MD said don't get to much hyped, so i haven't got much sympathy for you..

And no, I'm not getting out of here, the only way it will happen if you ban me. I enjoy the community and I AM NOT MOVING! I'm just pissed at Umaro and MD, I know they do hard work and spend their own money on that but that counter and explanation of it was way overhyped. And this was done on our backs, the real fans. If I weren't such I won't be feeling that bad and sad now!